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Bome's Midi TranslatorTutorial: MT Pro with AbletonNotes:1. These help documents were created for the Windows version of MidiTranslator. The concepts are the same, but the screenshots look a littledifferent. Sorry for the inconvenience.2. This is a tutorial made by a user of an older version of Midi Translator Pro.The screenshots will look slightly different, but it will work just the same forcurrent versions of Midi Translator.
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with Ableton1 Introduction1 IntroductionLike many people, I was blown away by the Kid Beyond video on theAbleton site, and seeing as I've been using Ableton for years I thought I'dgive it a whirl and try and duplicate the elegant simplicity of his rig. Thechallenge was this: to keep to an absolute minimum the need for button (orpedal) presses, to keep everything automatically synced and to remove theneed for a screen. As an added bonus, I want to be able to save everythingI record, and to resample whatever is looping in the same easy way as Irecord layers.The rig I've developed has 8 buttons, for 8 tracks. Hit 1 to start recordingon track one at the start of the next bar. Hitting 2 will start recording ontrack 2 at start of the next bar while track 1 continues playing back whatyou've just recorded. You can continue this for any track, simply hit thenext destination, and at the end of the bar, you'll start recording on the newdestination track. Hitting the same button as the track you are recordingwill stop the recording process, and leave all the clips you just recordedlooping cleanly.Doing this on channel 8 is different. Channel 8 will resample the result, stopall the other clips, insert a new layer, copy the stopped clips in to savelater, and empty out all the recording slots so you can continue adding stuffin. I usually have a high pass and low pass filter ready on this channel toallow me to remove the tops or bottoms to give some sonic space for morelayering.It would be pretty poor form of me to brag about what a great setup I'vegot without showing you *exactly* how to do it yourself, so that's what I'lldo next. Hopefully you'll learn some useful tips and tricks along the way.With some of the techniques used here you can really take control ofableton and make live setups that finally free you from the dreaded mouse,bane of electronic musicians everywhere. If you take everything that's coolabout a guy on stage with a load of noise screaming out of an electricguitar, and then try and imagine its polar opposite, it's the sight of a mouseand a laptop.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 2/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with Ableton2 Preparation2 PreparationYou will need:Ableton Live (obviously)Bome's Midi Translator Pro or Author(free for 30 days , but once you learn how to use it in this tutorialyou'll want it all year round) – you can use the Classic version if youlike, but you will not be able to completely automate the cleanupmacro that I use for the resampling without assigning an extra buttonand remembering to press it after the bar ends. Timers in MTPro/Author are incredibly useful tools.You can also use the free MT Player, but you won't be able to adaptthe preset to your MIDI (foot) controller.An external midi controller with a free key or button per track.I developed this using a Tascam US-428 (in 'four control banks'mode) so my 8 track buttons send the Midi notes E0 - B0. In thefollowing setup screens, whenever you see [Note On #1:F#0, vel127] replace it with whatever midi information your midi controllersquirts out. I have also developed a version of this rig specifically forthe US-428 which controls the on-board LEDs to show you whichchannel is recording (flashing red) and which have been recorded toalready (steady red). I will release a further tutorial at a later date ifthere is demand.A modicum of technical knowledge about your PC and MIDI isrequired.I'll document in reasonable detail, but If I write so a chimp could doit, it will make for very boring reading.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 3/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with Ableton3 The Ableton Setup3 The Ableton SetupPreparation:Important: Turn off the Options/Computer MIDI Keyboard, as it willprevent you from accessing keys you need to use for automation.In Preferences/Record Warp Launch and make sure Exclusive/Arm isdeselected as we will have to arm 8 tracks at once.Set quantize to 1 barCreating the Ableton Rig:We're going to create 9 audio tracks and set them up as follows:Create 9 audio tracks & name them. Track 9 will be used as an input strip.For tracks 1-7:Choose '9-Input' as the input source, turn monitoring to 'off' and arm forrecording.Track 8:Choose 'resampling' as the input source, turn monitoring to 'off' and arm forrecording.Track 9:Choose your external audio source as input, set monitoring to 'in'.Finally, set up the keyboard assignments as follows, placing the numberkeys into the top row of cells on tracks 1-8 and the top row of letters q-iinto the 'stop' buttons on the first 8 clips and SHIFT 1 through 8 into thechannel selection cell.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 4/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with Ableton3 The Ableton SetupNow save that template. You can play with it just using the number keys ifyou like, the basic functionality is all there and even on it's own, thistemplate can be useful. For troubleshooting purposes , I recommendturning off all Midi input at this point until you have everything running.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 5/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with AbletonTranslator Pro/Author (MTPro)4 Bome's MIDI4 Bome's MIDI TranslatorPro/Author (MTPro)4.1 Preparation & TheorySet the Midi In to come from your Midi device.We are going to set up several MTPro presets, and switch between them.The basic theory is that when recording on channel x, we need to add anextra keystroke to turn that channel off when we're done. There are 4distinct types of preset, one of which will be copied & amended 7 times fortracks 1-7.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 6/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with AbletonTranslator Pro/Author (MTPro)4 Bome's MIDI4.2 Preset [Safe]This is the preset we need to select before we start recording in Ableton. Itsimply captures your 8 incoming Midi notes and changes preset accordingly.4.3 Preset [Always Active]Now go to Preset/Edit "Always Active" Preset and add these translators(remember, you can cut & paste these from preset [safe] to copy thoseincoming note assignments).With Preset [safe] selected, when we press 1-8, two things will happen. Thekeypress '1-8' will be sent through to ableton, starting recording on thatchannel, and MTPro will flip to a new preset:(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 7/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with AbletonTranslator Pro/Author (MTPro)4 Bome's MIDI4.4 Preset [rec 1]Here's the active preset for recording on channel 1. The first bank of 8translators add an additional keystroke of '1' to stop recording on thischannel – note that this translator is turned off for channel 1.The second bank of translators deals with preset switching. In all casesapart from the first this can be copied & pasted from [safe], but notice thatpreset 1 switches back to safe.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 8/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with AbletonTranslator Pro/Author (MTPro)4 Bome's MIDI4.5 Presets [rec 2] – [rec 7]These are variants on the above. You can copy and paste [rec 1] and simplychange the following 3 properties:Make sure that the translator 'rec again' is turned off for the channel youare currently editing.Change the keystroke to match.Only switch to [safe] on the channel you are editing.If you examine the red highlighted areas from the two graphics it should befairly obvious how the rest pan out.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 9/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with AbletonTranslator Pro/Author (MTPro)4 Bome's MIDI4.6 [rec 8]This final channel is used for resampling. I have split the final timertriggered key command into several parts for ease of reading, but it couldbe done with a single translator.The first bank of translators tells clips 1-7 to stop playing at the end of thebar.The second bank will start a timer called mixdown. This needs to last longerthan 1 bar at the tempo you are recording at – my choice of 3.5 secondsallows me to safely record as low as 75 bpm. Any lower and there's a small(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 10/11
Bome's Midi Translator: Tutorial: MT Pro with AbletonTranslator Pro/Author (MTPro)4 Bome's MIDI[possibility my cleanup could be triggered before the end of the bar. If youplan on recording slower than this you may need to increase this delaytime, or you may wish to speed it up for better response.The final sequence of commands are triggered from the timer in top- downorder. It starts by capturing and inserting the current scene(CTRL SHFT I), selects the next track (SHFT 1-7) then copies and pastesthe now stopped clips 1-7 into the new slots created for them (Up CTRL XDown CTRL V), deletes a stray on 8(Up Del), leaves the resample playingon track 8 and finally shifts back to [safe].5 In UseWe should be ready to go. Fire up MTPro, select the [safe] preset.Fire up Ableton and load the scene we created earlier.Hit play.From now on, all your recording is managed through the 8 buttons/keyswe've assigned. Hit 1 and start recording, hit it again when you're finished(before the end of the last bar), or hit another channel to immediately startrecording on that channel instead. If you want to resample that to a singleloop, hit button eight to start resampling and any button again to stop, thusallowing you to easily set any loop size for your resampled loop.That's it. Couldn't be simpler in operation.6 Project FilesThe project file of this tutorial is installed with Midi Translator in the MyDocuments\Bome's Midi Translator\Presets folder under the name "AbletonLive MGO Rig 1.00". Also included is a .als file to set up Ableton.7 ContactI hope this tutorial has been of help. If anyone can think of ways tostreamline this, make it better, or just abuse it in cool ways, let me know!Please send any feedback to chelfyn@gmail.com.Cheers.(c) 2010 by Bome SoftwarePage 11/11
Tutorial: MT Pro with Ableton Notes: 1. These help documents were created for the Windows version of Midi Translator. The concepts are the same, but the screenshots look a little different. Sor
